Speaking in structure and transitivity: politeness in “Abiku” by J.P. Clark

Abstract

This study examines some pragma-linguistic features in Clark-Bekederemo’s “Abiku”. The examination is relative to their function as elements foregrounding politeness in interlocution. The analysis focuses mainly on the structure and partly on transitivity; and offers an interface between two referents the speaker (S) and the hearer (H). The poem is analysed to account for the significance of thematic structure and transitivity. While structure offers an in road into the syntagmatic presentation, transitivity examines the paradigmatic relation among certain words applied in the poem. The incident of the marked thematic structure becomes congruently productive in the transmission of a certain pragma-linguistic inclination on the part of the speaker. Central to the pragma-linguistic inclination, as observed in the analysis, is the depersonalization or de-emphasis on the beingness of the abiku. This is evinced in the preponderance of disproportionately marked forms of sentence constructions in situations where the abiku should function as a Subject. This marked form of expression construction is duly sustained and significantly applies to both the entry and exit statements in the poem. The markedness in the deliberate thematization of processes and circumstances rather than a participant in transitivity is an extension of communicative features in the poem.